Product Description

In this chilling remake of The Omen ? that is even more terrifying than the original ? man's darkest fears are manifested as an unspeakable terror is unleashed on the world! U.S. diplomat Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) substitutes an orphan for his own stillborn baby in order to spare his unknowing wife (Julia Stiles). But after a series of grotesque murders and dire warnings, the Thorns come to the horrifying realization that their child is the son of Satan!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79887 in DVD
• Brand: SCHREIBER,LIEV
• Released on: 2006-10-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Italian
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
If you can overlook its glaring redundancy, The Omen is a faithful and well-crafted remake that does adequate justice to Richard Donner's popular 1976 original. It's a completely unnecessary film, given that David Seltzer's original screenplay wasn't even rewritten (as would normally happen with a Hollywood remake), but when viewed with fresh eyes, or by anyone who's unfamiliar with the original, it retains most of the serious, intelligently plotted chills that made Donner's horror thriller a box-office sensation. It skews to a younger audience (of course), with Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles in the roles originated by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. As newly-promoted U.S. Ambassador to England Robert Thorn and his troubled wife Katherine, they grow increasingly suspicious that their young son Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) may be the devil incarnate. An anxious Roman priest (Pete Postelthwaite) and a freelance photographer (David Thewlis, in the role memorably originated by David Warner) are equally terrified of this Satanic scenario, and Damien's new and eerily protective nanny (played to perfection by Mia Farrow) adds further evidence of Damien's malevolence, as Vatican prophesies of Armageddon are rapidly fulfilled. Director John Moore (who also remade The Flight of the Phoenix) offers a few minor improvements in suspense and gruesomeness (including a more graphically inventive death for a prominent character), but he's also hampered by the weaker presence of Davey-Fitzpatrick, who's not nearly as creepy as the original film's Damien. Otherwise, this copy of The Omen justifies its existence as a worthwhile diversion for stormy-night viewing.--Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

RE-MAKE OF A CLASSIC GOTHIC CHILLER...
This is a decent re-make of a first class, gothic chiller. It is not, however, as creepy as the 1976 original, which starred Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, as it lacks Jerry Goldsmith's pulse pounding musical score. It also has a younger cast that lacks the gravitas of the original. Still, the film is still worth viewing, if only to see how it fares in comparison to the original, especially as the screenplay used appears to be the original one.

Katherine (Julia Stiles) and Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) are a young, affluent American couple. Katherine is pregnant and, while in Italy, gives birth to an ostensibly stillborn boy, a fact that is kept from her. Knowing how much his wife wanted the baby and the difficulty that she had in conceiving, Robert agrees to have the dead baby supplanted by a living newborn whose mother died in child birth, keeping this information from Katherine. They name this baby Damien.

All goes well for the prosperous Thorn family, until Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) turns five. A series of dramatic, unusual events begin to occur around the Thorns, all seemingly stemming from Damien. Well guarded by a somewhat creepy nanny (Mia Farrow), there are those who would believe him to be the Antichrist. By the time that Katherine and Robert begin to realize who Damien may truly be, their lives are out of control. With the aid of an inquisitive photographer, a repentant priest, and an mysterious man who holds the key to the destruction of the Antichrist, Robert Thorn becomes a man with a mission. Will Damien let him complete that mission? Watch this movie and find out.

Both Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles give credible performances, though they are no Gregory Peck or Lee Remick. Mia Farrow, as the nanny with a diabolical mission, gives a fine and genuinely creepy performance, aided in part by what appears to be a pair of collagen enhanced lips. The rest of the supporting cast is also excellent. While this re-make pales in comparison to the original, it is still enjoyable and worth watching.

an all-around lousy film
I've never seen the original THE OMEN, so - unlike most reviewers - I'm not going to compare this movie to the original; I'll simply judge it on its own merits. Unfortunately, this film is seriously lacking in merits.

Now, I understand that horror movies are unlike other movies. Their primary purpose is to startle, creep-out and disturb. So - if the dialogue is a little mannered, or if the characters aren't fully developed - well, these shortcomings can be forgiven ... but COME ON! The dialogue in THE OMEN is *ridiculously* flat and uninspired. I do not exaggerate when I say it is as if a high school student penned the script. And, while Schrieber does a passable job with his role, Stiles generates one of the worst performances I have ever seen. She should be embarrassed. The one and only star performance is Farrow's; as the nanny, she is creepier than the anti-Christ child (and it did bring a smile to my face to see the star of ROSEMARY'S BABY cast in this film: nice touch).

The sophomoric script and vapid acting wouldn't be as noticeable if the movie were actually scary. Unfortunately, other than a few merely startling moments, there is nothing terrifying about this film. Mind you, this is coming from a woman who rarely watches horror films and is very easily frightened. I had nightmares after I watched DONNIE DARKO for the first time. However, rather than squirm with anticipation (which is the effect most horror films have on me), I spent most of this movie rolling my eyes at the laughable script and poking holes in the story's logic (Are all tombs in Italy that easy to open? How did the photographer know that the maternity ward was on the third floor? Why would an attempted child-murderer get a funeral with full military honors?).

To be fair, I did like the fact that THE OMEN attempted to create terror out of atmosphere and tension rather than out of violence and gore. But the key word here is "attempted." This movie was never able to create a sense of terror.

Basically, this is a silly film. The story is not very interesting. The acting is weak. It is not frightening. I absolutely do not recommend it.

Speak of the Devil: Another Horror Remake
For those of you keeping tabs on the slew of remakes invading Hollywood, you can cross another one off your list. "The Omen"--originally released in 1976 and directed by Richard Donner--was a film I found to be quite overblown, the story and characterizations stretched a little too thin to do justice to the idea behind it. Now, thirty years later, we have John Moore's remake. I had my doubts going into the theater because I knew it was reinterpreting something that wasn't very good to begin with. But for whatever reason, this new version works. At least, it works for me. At first I couldn't understand why; this is a very faithful adaptation of a baffling film, and because of that, I expected this to be equally as disappointing.

I have to admit that it was an entertaining reinterpretation. Unfortunately, the story had nothing to do with why I liked it; I think it had more to do with the film's style. It relied on pure atmosphere and mood to convey the impending terror that occurs. There are many moments encased in shadow, most of which are only lit by the occasional flash of lightening. We also get to look inside an open grave in Rome, a scene accentuated by snowy, dismally gray weather. Most importantly, we get subtle yet significant character expressions, most of which come from Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), the young but not innocent Devil incarnate. There's a moment when he's in a dimly lit kitchen fixing himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When his mother, Katherine (Julia Stiles), enters the room, he gives her one of the creepiest stares I've ever seen a child give.

It also helped that most of the famous scenes from the original were brought back. These include Katherine falling from the upstairs landing, a priest getting impaled, and a nanny who inexplicably hangs herself. ("It's all for you, Damien!" she shouts before jumping from the roof of the Thorns' sprawling London estate. No matter how hard I try, I still can't figure out why she did it or exactly what was all for him.) Even some of Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar winning score finds its way into the remake. I suppose those of you devoted to the original film will find this troublesome, maybe even blasphemous (pardon the pun). When it comes to remakes, there's always been a fine line between a genuine update and an unimaginative rehash. Whether or not "The Omen" actually crosses that line is open for debate.

That's because, despite the new cast and the impressive cinematography, the basic story is exactly the same. It beings when U.S. ambassador to Italy Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) arrives at the hospital to be by his pregnant wife's side (apparently, she went into a rather difficult labor). He runs into Father Spiletto (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) when he arrives, and the priest gives him the bad news: the baby did not survive the delivery and Katherine will most likely never again be able to bear children. This is more than just devastating for Robert, it also puts extra pressure on him; Katherine still doesn't know what's happened, and now, he has to be the one to tell her. But Spiletto gives him another option. Another child was born that day, a boy whose mother tragically died during childbirth. As an added bonus, he has no other living family members. (Does the word "convenient" come to mind?) Robert decides to bring the boy to his wife and tell her that they have a beautiful new son who they name Damien.

Everything goes smoothly for the family over the next five or so years. Then things start to go wrong when Robert's colleague--Ambassador Steven Haines (Marshall Cup)--is killed in an accident involving a leaking gas truck and a discarded cigarette (I'm sure you can imagine what happens). But life goes on, and the Thorns eventually move from Italy to London, taking residence in an obscenely large gothic mansion. For a short while, things continue to go smoothly. Then comes Damien's birthday, an almost gala event that brings scores of children and even larger scores of photographers. It also happens to be the same day when Damien's young nanny (Amy Huck) performs her suicidal stunt.

And that's when everything starts to go downhill. The search for a new nanny yields the unexpected finding of Mrs. Baylock (Mia Farrow), a seemingly friendly but somehow sinister woman who takes an uncomfortable liking to Damien. She also defies the authority of his parents, especially when it comes to keeping a mean spirited stray dog in the house. Strangely enough, this behavior made her a confusing character. I was bothered by the fact that I never really got a chance to know her; she just appears out of nowhere, and even though we know what her real intentions are, we don't know why she has them. I can only speculate that she belongs to some kind of opposing factor that sent her to the Thorns.

Still, she does add a much-needed dose of tension into the story (especially in the scene when she hand feeds Damien strawberries; talk about tense). But Mrs. Baylock is only the start of the family's problems. Katherine eventually beings to notice certain things about Damien, things that other children don't seem to have to deal with. For one, she realizes that he's never once gotten sick, despite having a typically non-sterile childhood. But more importantly, he's become increasingly detached, always walking around with a blank expression and dark circles under his eyes. When she starts to have nightmares relating to her son, she knows for sure that something is wrong with him.

Robert is noticing some strange things, as well. At one point, he runs into Father Brennan (Pete Postlethwaite), a man who seems desperate to warn him about his son. Bluntly put, he believes Damien to be the son of the Devil, and he makes his case by quoting lyrical Bible passages. As you might expect, Robert is initially unwilling to listen to what Brennan has to say, even when he insists that Katherine is in danger. Only when she takes her bad fall does Robert begin to see the pieces falling into place. It's clear, even to Keith Jennings (David Thewlis), a mysterious photographer who sees the clues in his own pictures. Evil may in fact be living among us in the form of a young boy, and if there's to be any hope of saving humanity, his body and soul have to be destroyed.

Thus begins a borderline obsessive mission, one that leads Robert and Keith from London to Rome and eventually to Isreal. Robert continually questions his own state of mind along the way, torn between believing his son is the Antichrist and the fact that he may be plotting the murder of an innocent young boy (even though we know the truth). In this sense, the writer is obviously skilled in depicting emotional turmoil. But despite the fact that I found the film's strong emotional core enticing, I think what most attracted me to it was its ad campaign (which, I realize, is not exactly meaningful).

I remember seeing the first teaser trailer for it back in the spring, one of the creepiest, tensest teasers I've ever seen. It started with a shot of a dog sitting on a rusty-looking playground carousel. Then the camera slowly pans over to a young boy sitting on a swing set. At the end of the shot, he looks directly into the camera with a simple yet terrifying gaze in his eyes. I also remember seeing plenty of billboards for it. Like the teaser, none of them had the film's title; they only had the date (6-6-06, the cleverness of which faded a long time ago) and a couple of taglines (such as "You have been warned," and "The signs are all around us"). It's probably not a good thing when a film's ads are more impressive than the film itself. I liked this movie at the most superficial level, and because of that I can only recommend it for the way it looks, not for the story it tells.